An Urban Plug-In Park That Tastes Like Coke

Spicing up public spaces with little interventions is something urban hackers have been busy with for quite some years. Also brands start to see a potential way of being visible in cities by improving the public realm through branded hacks, such as Coca-Cola, that introduces a truck that’s able to roll out an urban park.

The one-of-a-kind pop-up park machine is specially made for the soft drinks company, and was first launched in Vilnius, Lithuania as part of the company’s global project ‘Where Will Happiness Strike Next’. Coca-Cola’s ‘Roll Out Happiness’ truck’ aims to make gray urban spaces a little more happy. The temporary intervention, that has the shape of a Coca-Cola’s famous bottle, produces real grass and invites passers-by to take of their shoes, enjoy the sun and relax a bit (while enjoying a refreshing Coke, of course).

The project is carried out quite well and reminds of earlier projects that were based on the same idea, but without the inevitable taste of Coke in your mouth. Flying Grass Carpet by Rotterdam-based HUNK-design, for instance, was a traveling park of artificial grass designed to give boring urban places a temporary green park. Gaëlle Villedary created Tapis Rouge!, a temporary intervention in the French town of Jaujacin that claimed to be the world’s longest park.

The pop-up economy is flourishing. More and more services don’t need a permanent and fixed location in the city, but prefer to offer their services in a flexible way. In our home town of Amsterdam we came across one of the most unexpected pop-up concepts we’ve ever seen — a mobile hair dresser for dogs. Moving from place to place in an old white and pink painted truck, the dog grooming salon offers several treatments for all kinds of dogs right in front of you own house or even on the campsite during holidays.

The innovative Boxpark mall in Shoreditch, London has announced to open up a branch in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam Boxpark wil be located at the Northern shore of the IJ canal, inside the so-called Lasloods. This building was used as a shipyard but is now being renovated to accommodate Boxpark and other events such as concerts or festivals.

At the ‘beach’ of Amsterdam’s new suburb Almere, our friends of DUS Architects have built an illegal temporary summer house slash hotel which opened its doors three days ago. The construction, which is built in one night, is completely made of typical plastic bags filled with sand. Gecekondu literally means ‘built overnight’. Gecekondu is a…